Programmable timer for controlling the injection of additives to a dry cleaning solvent charge

ABSTRACT

A programmable timer for controlling the proportional and volumetric addition of additives to a dry cleaning solvent charge, utilizes an oscillator, binary counter frequency dividers, and a four line to 16 line decoder to establish selective time reference intervals. Material feed control solenoid valves are controlled by flip-flop circuits. Materials feed is initiated by causing the flip-flip circuits to assume one stable state to energize the solenoid valves, and material feed is terminated by the decoder outputs, indicative of selected time intervals, causing the flip-flop circuits to assume the other stable state to deenergize the solenoid valves.

United States Patent [191 Jurjans lMarch 20, 1973 [5 PROGRAMMABLE TIMER FOR 3,639,844 2/1972 Karklys .307 293 x CONTROLLING THE INJECTION OF 2,330,226 141961 Skelton et a]... ..307/293 D I '3, 7,532 1968 Lane etal ..317/l41 S E K CLEANING 3,378,703 4/1968 Huxster et al.. ..307/293 3,383,525 5/1968 Arksey ..328/129 X [75] Inventor: Ojars Jurjans, Camden, NJ.

Primary Examiner-Stanley D. Miller, Jr. [73] Assignee. ,llztromc Industries, Philadelphia, Anomey paris Haskell & Levine [22] Filed: Aug. 25, 1971 [57] ABSTRACT [21] App]. No.: 174,627 A programmable timer for controlling the proportional and volumetric addition of additives to a dry cleaning solvent charge, utilizes an oscillator, binary [52] "328/ 307/293 g counter frequency dividers, and a four line to 16 line decoder to establish selective time reference intervals. g g 33 3 Material feed control solenoid valves are controlled by. I 1 o $57 5 328 48 flip-flop circuits. Materials feed is initiated by causing 5 1 the flip-flip circuits to assume one stable state to enerl gize the solenoid valves, and material feed is terminated by the decoder outputs, indicative of selected [56] References cued time intervals, causing the flip-flop circuits to assume UNITED STATES PATENTS the other stable state to deenergize the solenoid valves. 3,391,305 7/1968 Bradwin et al ..317/141 S X 3,571,731 3/1971 Rabe et a1. ..328/l31 7 Claims, 1 Drawing Figure FLIP-FLOP PATENTEBnAmm-a INVENTOR OJARS JuRJAm WQ \QM mokjsowo NTUQNEYS PROGRAMMABLE TIMER FOR CONTROLLING THE INJECTION OF ADDITIVES TO A DRY CLEANING SOLVENT CHARGE BRIEF SUMMARY AND BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to chemical processing time control circuits, and more particularly to a control circuit for programming the addition of a plurality of 0 customary to incorporate materials that affect the handle, feel and soil resistance of the garment or fabric being processed. These additive ingredients are consumed or spent in the dry cleaning operation, or are retained by the fabrics processed. Therefore, from time to time it becomes necessary to replenish the additive ingredients.

Among the ingredients usually added to the basic organic solvent dry cleaning charge are small quantities of water, detergents, antistatic agents, lubricants, softeners, and resins. For optimum results, and in order not to damage the clothing or fabrics being processed, it is important that the concentration of additives in the basic dry cleaning solvent be controlled, and that the relative proportions of the various additives be retained within reasonable limits. Heretofore, the additive ingredients have been measured out and added by hand to the dry cleaning charge. Since dry cleaning processing is generally conducted by unskilled labor, the appropriate measuring out of additives is arduous and tends to be unreliable. It is therefore desirable to automate this procedure.

The present invention provides an electrical circuit and system using a time base or clock pulse generator, and derives therefrom proportionate measures, based on measured time intervals, for the concurrent volumetric injection of the several dry cleaning additives into the basic dry cleaning solvent charge. The circuit is designed so that proportionate measures and absolute volume measures for various additives may be adjustably selected by relatively simple adjustments. The system may be initially programmed by a skilled technician for the needs of the particular dry cleaning establishment, or type of fabric or clothing charge being treated; or if desired, the adjustments may be made pursuant to a predetermined chart of appropriate dial settings. Once the system is set, injection or delivery of a proportionate charge and determined volume of additive ingredients is initiated simply by the momentary closing ofa push button switch.

It is therefore one object of the present invention to provide for the adjustably selective addition of predetermined proportional and volumetric quantities of a number of additive ingredients concurrently into a liquid cleaning vehicle charge.

Another object of the present invention is to provide for such addition of additive ingredients into a dry cleaning solvent charge.

And still another object of the present invention is to provide for the selectively adjustable proportional and volumetric control of the concurrent feed of a plurality of materials, using a time base circuit to obtain a plurality of selectively adjustable concurrently running time intervals for controlling the delivery of said materials.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from a consideration of the following detailed description of one exemplary and illustrative embodiment of the invention, had in conjunction with accompanying drawing, which is a functional block diagram of a system embodying the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Oscillator 30 is the time base generator of the present system, whose output consists of regularly recurring pulses at a desired frequency for which the oscillator is set. The output of oscillator 30 is fed to frequency divider 31, which preferably maybe a multistage binary counter. A single output 32 is taken from one of the stages of the divider, providing a selected reduction in frequency over the oscillator frequency. For example, if output 32 is taken from the fourth stage of a binary counter, the output frequency will be 1/16 that of the oscillator output. Output 32 is fed to a second frequency divider 33, which for purposes of illustration may also be a four stage binary counter. In this instance an output is obtained for each of the four stages, and these four outputs are fed to a four line to sixteen line decoder matrix 34. The 16 lines in the output of the decoder are numbered 0-15 on the drawing, and are shown as connected to the terminals of two 16 position selector switches 35 and 36, in parallel.

As is fully understood in the art, the decoder matrix 34 converts the binary count of divider 33 to a decimal count, and for each of the binary counts registered on the four output lines of divider 33, a corresponding line 0-15 at the output of decoder 34 is energized. Thus, as the binary count of divider 33 progresses from zero to 15, each of the output lines 0 15 of decoder 34 is successively energized, and the time interval between the energization of one of these output lines and the next succeeding one is equal to the time interval between pulses in the output 32 of frequency divider 31. Thus, to illustrate, if the oscillator 30 is operating at a frequency of 8 cycles per second, if dividers 31 and 33 are both four stage binary counters, and if output 32 from divider 31 is taken from the fourth stage: the time interval between pulse at output 32 would be 2 seconds, the time interval between the energization of any one output line of decoder 34 and the next succeeding line would be 2 seconds, and the time lapse between energization of line 0 and line 15 would be 30 seconds.

The system also includes two bistable flip-flop circuits 41 and 42. These two flip-flops are placed in a first stable state providing activating output signals at 41a and 42a, respectively, by momentary closure of push button switch 43. The two flip-flop circuits are reset to a second stable state, terminating the activating output signals on lines 41a and 42a, by reset pulses on lines 41b and 42b, respectively. The reset pulses are obtained from the l6 line output of decoder 34, at a time controlled by the positions of switch arms 35a and 36a.

The output of flip-flop 41 at 41a controls the amplifier 44, while the output of flip-flop 42 at 420 controls the amplifier 45 through AND gate 46. The second input to AND gate 46 is obtained from output 32 of divider 31. Output 32 provides a signal whose frequency corresponds to the time interval between energization of two successive lines at the output of decoder 34, and therefore provides a positive signal during half that time interval and a negative signal during the other half. Thus, during the time that flip-flop 42 is providing an activating output signal at 42a, amplifier 45 is cycled on and off by AND gate 46 at the frequency of the output 32 of divider 31.

Transistor 44 controls solenoid valve 51, and transistor 45 controls in parallel the three solenoid valves 52, 53, and 54, when the associated selector switches 55, 56, 57 and 58 are closed. As stated earlier, the objective of the present circuit is to program the addition of various additives, such as water, detergent, softener, antistatic agent, lubricant, and/or resin to the solvent charge of a fabric dry cleaning process. Solenoid valve 51 may therefore control the addition of water to the charge, while solenoid valves 52, 53 and 54 may control the addition of one or more other additives. Conveniently, solenoid valve 51 may simply open and shut off the feed of water from a normal pressurized water main system as transistor 44 is activated and deactivated by flip-flop 41. On the other hand, the other additives must be added from container reservoirs. Therefore, it is preferred that solenoid valves 52, 53 and 54 be air valves controlling pneumatic metering type pumps operated by the cyclic opening and closing of the solenoid air valves under control of the cyclic activation and deactivation of transistor 45.

The output of flip-flop 41 at 41a and the output of flip-flop 42 at 420 are coupled through OR gate 61 to the counter type frequency dividers 31 and 33. So long as either flip-flop 41 or 42 is in that stable state that activates the respective transistors 44 and 45, the counters are energized to operate in response to input pulses from oscillator 30 to counter type divider 31, and from divider 31 to counter type divider 33. However, when both flip-flop circuits 41 and 42 have been reset by signals on lines 41b and 42b to the stable state in which transistors 44 and 45 are deactivated, dividers 31 and 33 are thereby deactivated and their counters are reset to zero" starting condition in readiness to start operation when flip-flops 41 and 42 are again returned to their activating states.

To start operation of the present system, flip-flops 41 and 42 are in their stable states that do not activate the transistors 44 and 45. Switch blade 35a of control switch 35 is set in contact with that output line -15 of decoder 34 that provides the measure of time which corresponds to the injection of a desired quantity of water. Similarly, switch blade 36a of control switch 36 is set in contact with that output line 015 of decoder 34 that provides that measure of time which corresponds to the injection of a desired quantity of other additives. Desired selector switches 55-58 are closed, depending on which additives are to be injected into the dry cleaning solvent charge. Oscillator 30 is turned on. Pushbutton switch 43 is then closed momentarily,

which causes the flip-flops 41 and 42 to switch states,

' thereby activating the counter type dividers 3l and 33 and the transistors 44 and 45. Solenoid valve 51 is immediately opened by transistor 44 and an output signal from decoder 34 immediately appears on line 0. In a short interval of time, depending on the frequency of oscillator 30 and the divider 31, the first output pulse from divider 31 output line 32 appears, switching the decoder 34 output signal from line 0 to line 1. The second output pulse from divider 31 output line 32 switches that signal to decoder output line 2, the third output pulse from divider 31 switches the decoder output signal from line 2 to line 3, etc. With the setting of control switch 35 as shown in the drawing, when the decoder output signal is present on line 3, it is coupled by switch blade 35a and line 41b to flip-flop 41 and resets this flip-flop to its deactivating state, thereby deactivating transistor 44 and causing solenoid valve 51 to close.

Simultaneously with the beginning of activation of transistor 44 when pushbutton switch 43 was closed, as described above, the activating output from flip-flop 42 is combined at AND gate 46 with the cycling output at '32 from divider 31, to activate and deactivate transistor 45 cyclically. Transistor 45 goes through one activation and deactivation cycle for each time interval required for the output of decoder 34 to be shifted from one of lines 015 to the next succeeding line, which is also the period of one complete cycle through all the stages of binary counter type divider 31. As a result, the air solenoid valves 52, 53 and 54 are correspondingly opened and closed causing a like cycling of the pneumatic pumps that they control. The cycling of transistor 45 and the solenoid valves 52, 53 and 54 continues until the output signal from decoder 34 has stepped along its output lines to line 11, for the setting of switch 36 shown in the drawing. At that time, control switch blade 36a and line 42b couple the decoder output signal to control flip-flop 42, returning it to its deactivating state, thereby turning off the AND gate 46, and deactivating transistor 45. As a result, solenoid valves 52, 53 and 54 are closed and stop cycling, terminating the injection of additives to the dry cleaning solvent charge.

With both flip-flop 41 and 42 now in their deactivating state, no signal is transmitted by the OR gate 61 to dividers 31 and 33, and they are deactivated and reset to starting condition in readiness for the next period of operation when pushbutton switch 43 is once again closed.

From the foregoing description it will be appreciated that there are several parameters of programming control available to the operator. The setting of switch 35 controls the period of time in which water is passed by solenoid valve 51. The setting of switch 36 controls the period of time in which the other additives are injected by operation of air solenoid valves 52, 53 and 54. Selector switches 55, 56, 57 and 58 determine which of the solenoid valves will be actuated during any particular cycle of operation of the present system. In addition, it was mentioned above that, solenoid air valves, 52, 53 and 54 control pneumatic metering pumps. Although these metering pumps are not part of the present invention, and therefore are not shown in the drawing, it will be readily appreciated that the strokes of each of these pumps can be adjusted to vary the relative proportions of additives injected during the period of their operation.

The herein described specific embodiment of the invention is presented only as illustrative thereof, and numerous changes, variations and modifications will be apparent to those skilled in the art. For example, instead of just two control switches 35 and 36 and two control flip-flops 41 and 42, any number could be provided, and similarly any number of solenoid valves could be included with simultaneous or separate time control. Accordingly, such changes, modifications and variations are embraced by the spirit and scope of the appended claims are contemplated as being within the purview of the present invention.

What is claimed is:

l. A chemical processing program control circuit, comprising timer means for applying a signal to a plurality of terminals in a predetermined time sequence, a plurality of bistable means each having first and second stable states, feed control means coupled to each of said bistable means for activation when its respective bistable means is in said first stable state and deactivation when its respective bistable means is in said second stable state, means for placing said bistable means in said first stable state, means coupling selected ones of said terminals to selected ones of said bistable means to place each of said bistable means in said second stable state when said signal is applied to said terminal coupled thereto, and means coupling said bistable means to said timer means for activating said timer means while at least one of said bistable means is in said first stable state and for deactivating said timer means when none of said bistable means is in said first stable state.

2. A circuit as set forth in claim 1, wherein said plurality of bistable means are flip-flop circuits.

3. A circuit as set forth in claim 2, wherein said feed control means comprise a series of solenoid valves.

4. A circuit as set forth in claim 3, wherein said feed control means further comprise amplifiers in series with said solenoid valves and coupled to respective flipflop circuits for said activation and deactivation of the feed control means.

5. A circuit as set forth in claim 4, wherein the coupling between at least one of said flip-flop circuits and its respective amplifier is through an AND gate, and said circuit further includes means coupling a cyclic signal from said timer means to said AND gate to cause said amplifier to by cycled on and off during the period that said one flip-flop is in said first stable state.

6. A circuit as set forth in claim 2, wherein said means coupling said bistable means to said timer is an OR gate.

7. A chemical processing program control circuit, comprising timer means for applying a signal to a plurality of terminals in a predetermined time sequence, a bistable means having first and second stable states,

feed control means coupled to said bistable means for activation when said bistable means is in said first stable state and deactivation when said bistable means is in said second stable state, means for placing said bistable means in said first stable state, selector means coupling a selected one of said terminals to said bistable means to place said bistable means in said second stable state when said signal is applied to said terminal coupled thereto, said feed contro means comprising a control amplifier coupled to said bistable means to be activated and deactivated respectively by said first and second stable states of said bistable means, the coupling between said bistable means and said amplifier being through an AND gate, and said circuit further including means coupling a cyclic signal from said timer means to said AND gate to cause said amplifier to be cycled on and off during the period that said bistable means is in said first stable state. 

1. A chemical processing program control circuit, comprising timer means for applying a signal to a plurality of terminals in a predetermined time sequence, a plurality of bistable means each having first and second stable states, feed control means coupled to each of said bistable meanS for activation when its respective bistable means is in said first stable state and deactivation when its respective bistable means is in said second stable state, means for placing said bistable means in said first stable state, means coupling selected ones of said terminals to selected ones of said bistable means to place each of said bistable means in said second stable state when said signal is applied to said terminal coupled thereto, and means coupling said bistable means to said timer means for activating said timer means while at least one of said bistable means is in said first stable state and for deactivating said timer means when none of said bistable means is in said first stable state.
 2. A circuit as set forth in claim 1, wherein said plurality of bistable means are flip-flop circuits.
 3. A circuit as set forth in claim 2, wherein said feed control means comprise a series of solenoid valves.
 4. A circuit as set forth in claim 3, wherein said feed control means further comprise amplifiers in series with said solenoid valves and coupled to respective flip-flop circuits for said activation and deactivation of the feed control means.
 5. A circuit as set forth in claim 4, wherein the coupling between at least one of said flip-flop circuits and its respective amplifier is through an AND gate, and said circuit further includes means coupling a cyclic signal from said timer means to said AND gate to cause said amplifier to by cycled on and off during the period that said one flip-flop is in said first stable state.
 6. A circuit as set forth in claim 2, wherein said means coupling said bistable means to said timer is an OR gate.
 7. A chemical processing program control circuit, comprising timer means for applying a signal to a plurality of terminals in a predetermined time sequence, a bistable means having first and second stable states, feed control means coupled to said bistable means for activation when said bistable means is in said first stable state and deactivation when said bistable means is in said second stable state, means for placing said bistable means in said first stable state, selector means coupling a selected one of said terminals to said bistable means to place said bistable means in said second stable state when said signal is applied to said terminal coupled thereto, said feed control means comprising a control amplifier coupled to said bistable means to be activated and deactivated respectively by said first and second stable states of said bistable means, the coupling between said bistable means and said amplifier being through an AND gate, and said circuit further including means coupling a cyclic signal from said timer means to said AND gate to cause said amplifier to be cycled on and off during the period that said bistable means is in said first stable state. 